We are organizing an event at Araneta Center this coming Aug. 17-19, 2005. Titled “Quezon Festival at Araneta Center”, it will showcase some photographs and memorabilia of your lolo, the late Pres. MLQ. We will also feature arts and crafts and cultural shows from Quezon province and Quezon City.

In connection with this, we would like to invite you to be our Guest of Honor during the unveiling of the said event on August 17, 2005 at Ali Mall.

May we also get your contact information/email so we can formally send you our invitation? We would also like to send you the project brief and the line up of events.

Thank you very much and we are hoping for your favorable response soon.

Sincerely yours,

Francis Charles B Nanawa
President/Manager
FCN Concepts and Design

KULAS PIRO

i just want you to know that one of your cousins, ricky avancena, was a close buddy of mine way back when we were in grade 5 at the ateneo. the year was 1969 – the year that marcos was runnung for re-election against osmena.

at that young age we were so politicized – as a matter of fact it was ricky who opened me to the world of politics. i believe we had scions of the lopezes and magsasays in that class and there were 2 tanadas in our batch too – gerry and ricky. we would have mini miting de avances and rallies during lunch breaks. of course we were on the side of the osmena.

i remember ricky going to school with his ateneo shoulder bag full of bottle caps (“tansans”) so we will have enough ammo during our “tansan or tanstan battles” at the rock garden against the guys in grade 6. grade 5 section B – yes, i had lot of good memories – masayang masaya, and ricky was so much part of it.

please convey my warmest regards to him.

by the way, next too my vitamines, your site is part of my daily dose to get me moving during the day.

Hello sir. I’ve been reading your insightful opinions on the Inquirer and on this blog. This is to express my appreciation on your observations and analysis of what’s happening to our country. Thanks for enlightening us about the current issues, and showing us what is hidden among the muck that we call politics.

As for the Blog of the Round Table: I hope it will be open to more people. Afterall, lawyers don’t have exclusive jurisdiction over the topic you had discussed, and maybe for other topics to be discussed in the future. You need a better platform than a Web-based chat client, as Punzi can attest. Since you have limited the Round Table to a select, respected, and trusted individuals, why not use IM platforms instead?

Arbet, the only requirement for blogs of the round table is that you have a blog. to begin with, so it’s a little organized, we’re focusing on professions but you’re more than welcome to participate. just keep checking the roundtable blog for info.

Juan dela Crus

Great thoughts, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ‘PHILIPPINES BRIDES’ , … seeking men ads? I find this revolting and insulting. A good site like yours need not be tarnished by such kind of ads. I can’t believe it that an MLQ would accept such ads.

Emy IÃƒÂ±iguez

hello! been surfing the net for some interesting filipiniana articles when i saw an article about president quezon, clicked on the link which was your website. time flew quickly and i really enjoyed reading mrs. aurora quezon’s, the president’s, your father’s, your aunt nini’s and your mother’s (which left me wondering if she is a relative of the casas clan of meycauayan, bulacan?) short “biographies”. and i also enjoyed reading nick joaquin’s article, too. i hope you’ll put in some other articles regarding your family. i am really fascinated with your family history. thanks and more power.

romy manzanilla

dela

actually, i really don’t know how i got here in your site… i was just searching for chineses dynasties and this is the site that showed up after i clicked “search”. but you have a cool site… i like the articles in this site… it’s awesome…

boying nazario

can you give me ricky avancena’s email address? we used to spend summer together w/ gay in baguio in the late 60’s. legarda rd was their addres then & we were thier neighbors.
cheers & hopefully i’ll get ricky or gay’s email address.
salamat at mabuhay ang pilipinas,
boying

kuya manolo i think it would be a big help if you install a chatterbox on the sidebar of your blog para madali ka naming makausap…its almost i real time too…nga pala just in case you are too doped about writing too much on the real world please visit my blog…there you can make fun of me all you want without the potential of a lash hehehe…nga pala sana maglagay din po kayo ng one.org button…salamat

Roy Prado

It nice to see you website and great works thru the years. I have been reading your colums at PDI. Keep up the good work, we need to keep the flames of this country alive thru responsible and credible writing and opinions. Like Noli Rivel, I am also one of your classmates in DBTC.

God Bless,

Roy

hernan hormillosa

i appreciate your candor, courage and wisdom.we need people of your caliber and integrity. it can be lonely sometimes, especially when critics’ arrows sting with poison. know, however, that there are women and men of goodwill who are / will be with you always. God bless you.

Lalay

Hello! just wanted to post that your talk in UP Cebu last September 23, 2005, was really great… 🙂 and we UP Cebu students were really happy that you were able to grace the occassion. 🙂 Keep up the good work! and thank you for sharing your views… and opening our eyes to the realities that is happening around us. 🙂

Alex Lacson

You made me teary eyed with your article today. Perhaps because I can relate with you as I too had a miserable childhood. But mine was because my father did not care about me or most of us 7 children. He had vices, women, and left us and our mother for almost 10 years. In fact, I have no memory of my father playing with me or helping me with any of my school assignment, project or activity. He simply wasnt there. He came back to us a few years before his death, when he was already sickly. In his last few years, he tried to reach out to me, but I distanced myself. He died on January 15, 1992 but 20 days before that, we had a major shouting match, in the middle of the night. He died of heart failure. On the day of his death, I was back at my dormitory in UP Diliman, where I was a second year law student.

For years, I felt guilty for not making it up with him. I felt guilty that I didnt give him what he wanted from a son — love, respect, company, gratitude, emotional support — things that a father, in his old years, yearns from his children. I should have given these to him, even if he didnt give these to me in my tender years.

It was only recently that I was able to unburden myself with guilt. I make peace with myself and with him through prayers.

Whenever I remember to pray, i pray for the forgivenness of the hatred i kept in my heart. I too pray to God for the forgiveness of his sins. I pray to God to grant him rest, and to grant him peace. I pray to God to bring his soul to heaven. And I ask God to deliver my message to him — that I have always loved him.

I hope you have found your peace, Manolo.

You are a beautiful person.
I can see that in your writings.
I wish you peace and happiness.

Dearest Manolo;
I always try and follow what you are up to yet it is hard to keep up, I have always been a fan . . . .I do hope you are taking care of yourself though . . . .I will also take this opportunity to invite you to visit my homepage, I think you will enjoy the black and white drawings . . .one way or another you have influenced me in many good ways . . . .I miss you very much, most especially dinners and nights at the city, who knows I will visit soon. What about you, no plans in coming to visit south america?

i felt so enriched and nostalgic at the same time after reading your well-manicured column about books. I relived how my father raised me loving books and publications, though he didn’t raise me like John Stuart Mill nor John the beloved apostle. He would bring home weekly a copy of Free Press and Bannawag (the Liwayway in Ilocano)and i devoured them diligently. There were Tolstoy’s and James Michener’s bulky books and other authors in our shelves and I devoured these too. then in hihg school, I got acquainted with those American mags, Time Newsweek, Atlantic, New Yorker and others donated by USIS to provincial schools. I was blessed with a fantastic literature teacher who literally rammed through our heads great poets and novelists – my passion for the classics are a direct result of her efforts.

Thank God for fathers! And thanks Manuel for your column that made me dredge up my own past longing for books that of course lingered on till today. Iv’e followed you snce your Today’s days and when Today became a figment of yesterday I was so glad when you joined PDI ( Inquirer). Though at times i find PDI’s news stories good substitute for my fiction fare, I have always looked forward to your refreshing columns and at times your TV guestngs. Keep on and God bless!

By the way, you are in what school and course when you quit? How old are you, if you don’t mind.

Long time, no see. Well, after reading the blog, I see that the Philippines has an interesting political scene, though I wished the US Press covered it. And I hope I am not asking too many questions. 😛 Keep up the good work.

Billy M. Esposo

I wrote this as my column for May 17, 2005 — just over a week after the May 2004 elections. Much of what are discussed here segues naturally to the tale of the Garci tape, the long count and cheating in Mindanao. The friend I mentioned here is Paul Dominguez, former GMA Presidential Adviser for Mindanao, whose son Miguel ran and won as governor for Sarangani.

NEVER for a moment did I question the integrity of the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys. I reserve the highest respect for Mahar Mangahas of the SWS and Felipe Miranda of the Pulse Asia. More than that, I have known Mercy Abad of TNS Trends, the outfit that does the fieldwork for both the SWS and Pulse Asia, since my days as an advertising professional in the 70’s and 80’s. The fact that Mercy Abad is trusted by the two competing research companies to handle their fieldwork says a lot about her professionalism.

But the recent presidential election we had was unlike any other. It has been the most confused vote insofar as the presidential race was concerned. Up to the time the SWS and Pulse Asia undertook their last surveys, about 12% had indicated they were still undecided while a good number manifested an inclination to change their choices come Election Day. When you combine about 20-25% of undecided and soft votes, in effect, you expand your margin of error far beyond the standard 2%. This is why both Mangahas of SWS and Miranda of Pulse Asia had always maintained that the presidential race will prove to be a wide-open contest up to voting day itself.

Last Tuesday, May 11, I thought that the two surveys were again right on the button, especially after hearing the SWS exit polls. And I proceeded to send congratulatory SMS text messages to friends in the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo camp who were of course elated to be congratulated by an administration critic like me. One of those who responded to my text messages called and shared some stunning insights.

For obvious reasons (lest he be misunderstood by the administration camp), I shall have to withhold my friend’s identity except to say that this friend is a long standing comrade-in-arms dating back to the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. I have always valued his counsel during those times when he would visit me in my foxhole in the Cory Aquino Media Bureau. He not only knows his Philippine Politics 101, he is also an excellent political analyst and strategist. It is not surprising then that he again took an active part in EDSA II. He became a top political lieutenant of Macapagal-Arroyo, holding a cabinet rank.

My friend told me that my congratulatory text message may be premature. On top of this, he saw a real threat of the most dreaded scenario of the upper and middle classes – a possible Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ) victory. Just as I know him, he backs his contention with facts, as follows:

1. In many areas in Mindanao where the incumbent president was expected to mount a lead, FPJ either won or lost by very small margins. Mindanao was expected to add to the president’s lead in the Visayas – Macapagal-Arroyo’s strongest support base – and thus overtake the expected FPJ vote advantage in Luzon. In sum, my friend saw either an FPJ win in Mindanao or a very small margin for the president.

2. FPJ is expected to win in Luzon, which delivers the biggest number of votes – some 60% of total Philippines if I’m not mistaken.

3. The Visayas region, where the president is strongest, accounts only for around 24% of the total vote. Thus, this makes the Mindanao vote particularly crucial for Macapagal-Arroyo.

4. Assuming an optimistic scenario of Macapagal-Arroyo having a 40% winning margin over FPJ in the Visayas, this will still not suffice to offset an FPJ lead of 20% in Luzon that outnumbers the Visayan voting population by a ratio of nearly 3:1.

5. In Sarangani province in Mindanao, for example, FPJ was expected to have a narrow win of no more than 5 to 7%. The exit poll (not the SWS) done by the winning gubernatorial bet there that is allied with the administration showed FPJ getting 52% of the votes or some 12 to 14% more than expected.

6. Loren Legarda, who has long been assumed to lose to Noli de Castro, is tracking a very close fight, successfully paring a previous de Castro margin of 25% to one less than 5%. That attests to FPJ’s pulling power.

But what my friend finds very unsettling is his hypothesis over the riddle of the big undecided and soft votes. The big jump in FPJ votes in Sarangani province in Mindanao per exit polls seemed to have answered that.

He felt that a big portion of the undecided and soft voters may be the ones who were for FPJ but were too embarrassed to say so. According to my friend, FPJ’s lack of presidential credentials makes his voters vulnerable to badgering. FPJ voters in the underclass are also most likely beneficiaries of dole-outs and favors from Macapagal-Arroyo and would therefore not openly say they are for FPJ.

My friend’s well-informed and well-grounded views did stir the juices in me. Most ruffling was his point about the mystery of the recurring 20 to 25% undecided and soft votes. If so, FPJ indeed may end up winning this contest.

Now those who follow this column know that I never entertained the prospects of an FPJ presidency. I’ve sacrificed a lot for this country, took real risks in the making of both EDSA I and EDSA II – and it is unthinkable that I should now wish FPJ to be our president at this most crucial period when our democracy is on the rocks.

But the facts that my friend put across were well worth considering. It serves no end to allow one’s views against FPJ to prevent us from seeing the real possibility that he may indeed end up as our next president.

Further developments supported this likelihood. FPJ is winning in vote-rich Laguna and Bulacan by big margins. Macapagal-Arroyo was expected to place second to Naga’s son Roco in Bicol, but instead, FPJ placed second. My friend said that predominance in the key provinces of Bulacan and Bicol would have significantly eroded FPJ’s margin in Luzon.

Thus in Luzon, FPJ had loaded up his margins from the Ilocano North to Southern Tagalog while the only vote-rich provinces which delivered for Macapagal-Arroyo were Pampanga and the Pampango portion of Tarlac. If Mindanao does not add substantially to Macapagal-Arroyo’s Visayas margin – it is fair to assume that she will not be able to offset the FPJ margin in Luzon. This prospect even becomes more imminent considering the plausible scenario of FPJ winning in Mindanao.

What do all these mean for all of us? God knows and we will need Him now more than ever. If FPJ does end up the winner, will Macapagal-Arroyo cede power? Considering her recent track record, we cannot rule out the possibility of a scenario that would prevent an FPJ takeover. Whether she can pull it remains to be seen.

FPJ enjoys support from the junior officers in the military. Those retired generals openly supporting FPJ link up with the restless junior officers of the AFP.

When the administration tried to make political capital out of the SWS exit polls that had Macapagal-Arroyo as winner, and they tried to project that victory was in the bag, it provoked a counter move by the FPJ camp who staged their own “victory” rally in Makati. The reaction of the administration to the KNP Makati rally betrayed the administration’s great fear of another May 1, 2001 incident or worse – an extra-constitutional power takeover. It was a rare moment when the familiar smug braggadocio was suddenly absent on the face of presidential spokesman Mike Defensor.

Add to FPJ’s support base in the military the rage of the masses, which is to be expected if their idol is deprived of victory, and that May 1, 2001 assault in Malacanang will seem like a garden party.

ma. theresa b. vargas

i’m theresa, president of Political Science Society in FEU-Manila. Our society will be conducting a forum about Charter Change this month, and we would like to invite you as one of our speakers. In this regard may i ask for your e-mail address so i can send you the formal letter, which includes the topic, and the program for the event.
i hope you would response to our request at the soonest possible time.

One story that I am curious about but dropped off the edge of the earth (my corner of the earth that his) is the General Carlos Garcia corruption trial. My guess is the government is preoccupied with other things, ‘di ba? Could you point me to some of your writings on it? Salamat Po!

Anyway I see you are a UST Alum. What a wonderful choir the UST has, they do the UST and the Philippines very proud; and my wife, some friends, and myself hosted them in Appleton WI USA last fall. See the website I set up to promote the UST-Singers: The UST Singers in Wisconsin.

Carlo de Castro

So you suffer the same problem with DSL. Ours at home conked out for 6 days and each day I would call up the PLDT number in the directory always to be answered by a machine and subjected to their “music” for a long time only to be told that the agents were out. They never gave me a discount for the six days without service. What’s more, the company started adding EVAT tax to our phone bill from August to now. Isn’t the collection to start only Nov. 1
I’m an avid reader of your column and I agree with your ideas esp re inglorious Gloria, the usurper.
More power to you.

So you suffer the same problem with DSL. Ours at home conked out for 6 days last month and each day I would call up the PLDT number in the directory always to be answered by a machine and subjected to their “music” for a long time only to be told that the agents were out. They never gave me a discount for the six days without service. What’s more, the company started adding EVAT tax to our phone bill from August to now. Isn’t the collection to start only Nov. 1
And for the past days to the present our DSL modem blinks out occasionally, sometimes for a few seconds and other times for hours
I’m an avid reader of your column and I agree with your ideas esp re inglorious Gloria, the usurper.
More power to you.

william soriano

in your november 14 article about pldt’s dsl is in fact true….our company suffered 1 week of no dsl service and we thank them for making us loose 1million of supposed revenue…if globelines broadband may be available in paraÃƒÂ±aque we would change our subscription from pldt to globelines…globelines broadband will respond to subscriber’s concerns in committed 24-48 hrs technical response i have friends in makati and san juan who can prove this i wish globelines may have to extend thier services even to paraÃƒÂ±aque or say nationwide so that the too much confidence of pldt be put into humble pressure

Jaime S. Gatchalian

I read your article about PLDT DSL and has first hand experience in the quality of service that comes with it. We have two DSL Lines at the office (and thank God we had!) One of the lines went dead, so at least, we still had half the bandwidth to keep us going until the other line gets fixed. I tried to call up 172375 (the DSL Helpdesk) but all I get is the garbled ‘The PLDT DSL Customer Service…’ message and after a minute or so of the tired old PLDT theme, all I get is ‘Sorry, all our agents are engaged at the moment…’ I tried calling the old numbers given to me by the sales representatives but nobody answers the phones. So I guess, like you, I will have to wait for a miracle that one of these days, my other line will come back to life…

leonardo rosales

im also suffering from dsl connection w/c i think the speed is the same as dial up, i switch to dsl from dial-up connection so i could have faster speed, my plan is 1995 w/c in there advertisement have 512 kbps but when i check my speed w/c i usually do everytime i connect to dsl its only 300+kbps sometimes less, hope u could help us subscribers to solve this problem, i think a class suit is a good idea.

Marcus Aurelius, the investigation is going on, I believe, the report is being written and there is some anticipation over whether the report will be watered down or not.

pie, thank you!

William, Jaime, Leandro: Thanks for reading my column. Please list down every service interruption and duration, so you can faxt it to PLDT. And ask a lawyer about your consumer rights. After my column came out, PLDT called to say sorry, and to promise things would be attended to. The irony is, 20 minutes after they called, my DSL died again. The linemen came over and several hours later, they decided to replace my modem. Then it was ok.But it took a column for me to get attention and action. Compile your experiences please so I can write about it again, let me know if you want your names and locations mentioned.

sLiCkyWoRm

I’ve read your article in the Inquirer thru Inq7.net regarding the DSL crap of PLDT. I personally had the same experience a week ago. BACKGROUND: i am an IT Professional who works literally with Computers. Last week, my DSL knocked off and immediately checked the LAN settings, Internet Tools, Security Settings .. After 10 minutes of diagnostics, i concluded that it is a Line problem .. i called the Tech Support of PLDT MyDSL. After 20 minutes of unanswered call, an operator spoke. I told them “hi, good morning .. i having some problems with my connection .. it seems that my connection, though connected, doesn’t have any data received or sent ..” Then, the operator asked me the model type of my DSL modem, my Operating System, asked me to reset to default all the security/browser settings, LAN Settings, etc. (which i already did). I told them that i did all of those instructions and none seems to work. The operator politely told me to REBOOT my PC (grrr ..) and after loggin back, asked me if everythings back to normal (of course NOT) .. i told the operator “can i talk to a Tech Support? one who does the DSL maintenance?” then the operator told me “Sir, your problem will be dealt as soon as Tech Support is available” – NICE! .. i asked them if it would take an hour, then he replied .. Just leave your PC Running .. Tech Support will be Remotely checking your connection (Nice Mr. Operator, my PC was running for 72 hours and still, no DSL nor Tech Support) .. Now, i am bestfriends with MERALCO .. Thank You PLDT ..

-sLiCkyWoRm-

Helen Valderrama

This is a reaction to your article yesterday on your DSL woes. I too am an annoyed, disillusioned, and totally exasperated PDLT and PLDTDSL subscriber. In the last 5 Ã‚Â½ months, weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve had to contend with 2 episodes of no service Ã¢â‚¬â€œ the first one lasted for 6 days and weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re on our second one thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s on its 6th day already and countingÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ (this time we lost both our phone and our dsl). As you had done, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been trying to calm myself by the reminder that things can and do go wrongÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ but when they do, there must surely be a way for a company to let its customer know what had gone wrong, what was being done about it, and how soon a solution can be expected. And I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t mean a recorded message that robotically repeats Ã¢â‚¬Å“your service will be restored asapÃ¢â‚¬Â every time you try to find out when your dead phone will come to life again. Another thing that gets my beef is that, when service does get restored, you have to call another number to request that your bill get adjusted for the number of days you did not have serviceÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ is it too much to ask that this be done automatically? And is it too much to ask a company that just recently reported it expects to earn P32 billion in profits this year to spend some of that providing more decent service to its customers?

Socorro Medina

I am very glad you voiced out the concerns of disgruntled mydsl subscribers of PLDT. The class suit is a very good course of action.
I have subscribed to this service just barely two months. I enjoyed ‘supposedly’ better speed than dial-up for about three days. Then it went dead!!! It took me four hours for somebody to answer my call on 17375!!! I started dialing at 8pm and I was able to get in touch with a ‘customer assistant’ at 12 midnight!!! They usually tell you to turn off and on the modem, instructing you to go to internet options blah blah..the usual routine.. still the connection is dead.
One thing I experienced is that limited accesibility of DSL.Prior to my subscription (P999/month) I inquired whether accessibility is dependent on your subscribed plan. They said no. To my surprise I couldn’t access some sites which I used to when I was using dial-up!!! Whenever I was able to contact their help desk the answer I get is that there is nothing wrong with my dsl. Disappointed and exasperated (having a dsl connection with LIMITATIONS!!!), I even hired a technical expert to diagnose my problem. He found out that my IP address starts with 58..(which I later found out has problems in accessibility). He told me to request for an IP address which starts with 200+.
Again after a series of calls to 172375, they told me that they couldn’t do anything about it. I had to email them and follow-up my problem with the help desk. After all this trouble they agreed to my request.
Well, now I was able to access the sites but the speed is really slow.
Again a class suit is the alternative if PLDT doesn’t do anything to address this problem.

leonardo rosales

you could check your bandwith at http://www.pldtplay.com so you will know if the speed that you subscribe is really the speed you paid…pldt is fooling us subscribers w/ their fast speed dsl advertisements.